The Traditions of Chiang Mai

Traditional music

There are two types of Thai music, fork and traditional music. Fork music is performed in various distinctive styles while traditional music is similar to the style display from the early generation but it is still famous among the people today.

Traditional dance

The dance in Thailand is poetry in movement. Performances for classical Thai dance are largely influence by the stories of some religious or older traditions. For performance of the royal courts of Siam, the traditional dance is referring as ‘Fawn Thai’. ‘Fawn Thai’ has five basic styles. They are Fawn Lep (the fingernails dance), Fawn Marn Gumm Ber (the butterfly dance), Fawn Marn Mong Kol (the happy dance), Fawn Tian (the candle dance) and Fawn Ngiew (the scarf dance). Different region in Thailand display different style of Fawn dance, and normally this dance is go together with traditional music. For the fingernail dance, the ladies usually wear six-inch-long fingernails to display the elegant and unique dance.

Traditional costume

For ladies, they wear pha sin, a cloth that is rectangular in shape and wear like a sarong. The material is usually made of silk and it comes with various colours. The sarong is usually worn with long-sleeved silk blouse.

For gentlemen, they wear trousers and a suea phra ratchathan; a shirt with short-sleeve for casual wear or long-sleeve shirt for formal wear. A cummerbund will be tied around the waist for formal wear.

Others

Traditionally, Buddhist families have to send the male sons to be a ‘monk’ for three months when they reach the age of twenty. They have to literally shave their hairs and stay at the temple for three months and experience the life of being a monk. As for women, whenever the monks walk pass them etc. they have to make way for them so that they would not unintentionally have any physical contact with the monk.

Traditional Buddhist marriages required the couples to bow down before a Buddha. In addition, they believe that it is not good for a marriage ceremony to have monk.

The funerals ceremony in Thailand normally last for a week and the families, relatives and friends of the dead are asked not to cry as they believe that if they cry, the soul of the dead would not go peacefully. At the funerals, the monk will chant hymns and after the body had cremated, the ash will be placed in an urn and put in the temple.